Spoiler: My take on the "fallen angels" is this: Either they are some sort of demonic force or they could be some sort of non-corporeal being, similar to Vorlons. Some race banished them to Earth and probably some other planets at some point, and usually they just sort of float around with no consciousness unless they possess someone. They don't really even know what they are any more, so instead as they possessed people, they learned of Christianity (which would suggest they originally were only in Western countries like somewhere in Europe) and identified themselves with the fallen angels, and so since they believe that they are, that's why exorcism can work on them, just because they believe it should.
When the camera pans to the second Warlock, in the top right of the screen theres a stationary object in the background. What is that? It reminded me of the jumpgates from EVE online.. :P
While watching part 1, I was actually thinking alot about the book trilogy from Peter Hamilton, "Nights Dawn", where dead souls are posessing living humans.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
Heh, that occurred to me too Mundane :) Has to be my favourite series of books.
Or, DarthCaligula, they could actually be fallen angels, the last remnants from the days of creation. I'm normally not one to cite God as the cause for things, but B5 has always had some ties with theology. Seems like they could just as well be the Demons we once knew so well, trapped in purgatory for all eternity. chocking it up to an Alien influence starts to chip away the mystery of it and make it seem more complicated than it truly is.
Yeah, but it just seems strange that JMS would put that in the show since he's an Athiest and has never had B5 be a Christian show before. I'm not saying that they aren't some sort of demonic being, just that it would be strange if JMS suddenly threw that into B5.
He's never had B5 be a specificly "Christian" show, but has has allowed the show to take a religous slant on numerous occasions, some positive (the death of Ivanava's father), some negative (the overzelousness of G'Kars followers).
While he may be atheist, his is definitely not afraid to tackle religous questions.
I'm not saying anything about how B5 handled religion, which I thought was very well actually, I'm saying that it's weird that these would be fallen angels from Christianity and Judaism, that's what I'm saying is so strange.
H Alec, since the relase date here in germany is still some days ahead I can not tell you very much, but what I've seen in trailers and preview images so far looks pretty good. You and the rest of the VFX Crew seem to be done an incredible job under the thight deadline. :vorlon:
First two comments to the story elements of Lost Tales:
1) I agree with all the people who found the first episode to be out of place in B5. This could have been "Twilight Zone" all the same and I think some B5 alternatives like Telepathy or First Ones should have been discussed at least.
2) I agree with all the people who think the Quantumspace felt wrong. As was already mentioned here, it isn't consistent with the rest of the show and it seemed to me that it was only used to initiate the following very cheap joke.
Now to the SFX. The CGI quality was great and the new Minbari and Centauri ships fit B5 style much better compared to those of Crusade or Legend. I disliked the new jumphole graphics though, because as with Legend the original ones would have been fine for me. Now for two other SFX details:
1) I didn't like the Warlock firing yellow as in the original series there was an almost perfect connection between races and their powerbeam colors. EA should either still fire red or blue like the modified Shadow cruisers, not yellow like Centauri should do. This is especially critical...
2) ... as yellow beams appear in the earlier big CGI sequence. For that scene mass drivers would have been much better but I suspect this would have killed the budget big time. After all with those beams we don't actually see any destruction which we certainly would do otherwise.
Biggles<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
The beam weapons used in B5 are particle weapons, which essentially makes them mass drivers, just with lots of really small bits of mass instead of one big one. If you want to obliterate a surface, either one will do the job just fine. The colour emitted while firing would be a function of the particles that constitute the beam, so different beam technology could lead to different beam colour and it's not unlikely that the EA acquired new beam technology for the Warlock somehow.
Wesp5- Did you know that JMS has actually written for the Twilight Zone? I also think that it's strange that they didn't ever mention telepathy, but I actually liked that episode.
And good point about the mass drivers, that would have been really cool.
Yes, I knew JMS wrote for "Twilight Zone", that's why I got that impression. The same happened to me in the "Deconstruction" episode with the monks. That didn't fit into B5 either but would have been great in "Twilight Zone". It seems as if JMS is using this chance to bring alive any of his ideas, not only B5 ones, but I'd rather like to see the loose ends of Crusade tied up in the Lost Tales episodes.
Regarding the beam or particle weapons, I only partly agree with Biggles. Firing through an atmosphere would erode or slow down small particles much faster that large particles so the Centauri used the mass drivers on Narn on purpose. Also while I agree that the colour is connected to the technical level I would assume that the EA wouldn't get much higher in that timespan than with the stolen shadow tech. Yellow just adds to the confusion especially as it is the dominate Centauri colour and people not recognizing the new ships could get confused who is who in that battle. In case that matters to them anyway ;).
Vintari probably didn't want to use Mass Drivers as he knew it would echo what the Centauri did to the Narn Homeworld and how unpopular a move that was. So he would want to do something different to make himself look better.
It also depends on his aims and goals. If he just wanted to take Earth down a peg so they won't interfere in a newly expansionist Centauri Republic, then he might've just done some relatively minor strikes on civilian targets (probably after some kind of false attack on his own people to justify it). Not enough to convince the rest of the Interstellar Alliance to jump in to defend Earth, but enough to keep Earth too busy licking their own wounds to worry about what the Centauri were doing to the others.
[QUOTE=WORF;164025]Vintari probably didn't want to use Mass Drivers as he knew it would echo what the Centauri did to the Narn Homeworld and how unpopular a move that was. So he would want to do something different to make himself look better.
[/QUOTE]
In that case one small asteroid would have been enough and I still suspect this was a CGI issue. Maybe Alec can shed some light on it and the EA particle beam colors?
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
David: I have to disagree with your assessment there. I think having New York levelled wouldn't keep the EA licking its wounds for long, and then they would be out for blood. We also dont know if it was just New York that was hit, it could well have been a planet wide bombardment of which just New York was the start. Coupled with the attacks on the military I think it would have had to have been a major assault. If it wasn't then they had to realise that Earth wouldn't just sit back and take it, that would be against everything we've seen Earth to stand for.
It is considered illegal when Londo watched his government do it. I would think it would be illegal in the time when Ventari did it.[/QUOTE]
It didn't stop the Centauri back then and I don't think it would stop the Centauri when they dare to attack a world of the ISA.
Considering the story, I too find the first episode odd. I qould have liked for the "demon" to have been exposed as left over shadow tech at the end of the episode, possibly out to frighten earth back into the middle ages, but alas no..
Considering the VFX, I can just say: Great job. Pat yourselves on the back, I especially enjoyed the closeups of the starfury exhausts, and the heat shimmers behind Galen and Sheridan when they talk out in the docking room.
Great attention to detail.
Also, I really liked that you used several AOG ships in the ep., giving them a nod. You took some of the best looking ones too, the Balvarin Carrier especially. :)
Those are all my work and I'd have absolutely no problem with them being used, gratis, nor I think would the intended recipients would mind either. Also, I'd do more on spec, for nuthin' if they we're needed...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*If WB wants to sue my ass for doing a screen cap, so be it. This is all my own doing. Send the goonz to my door. I just gotta share. :)
I wouldn't want Argone's to be used... in fact I'd expressly forbid anyone from using it and indeed the 'Marauder' one. There's a large story as to why. I was banned for a week for trying to share it with you guys. PM me if you want details and I'll e-mail you the post that was deleted from these boards discussing this matter. It seems the mods are more than a little hyper-concerned with privacy.
ShadowDancerWhen I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
How much do you charge for your wingart SB?
I caught a bit of that thread in question, but as I wasnt around back then I dont think its right of me to enquire further.
well I used to do it for free when I had time on my hands, now I'm a good deal busier on stuff which pays the bills, so I don't do it much at all of late. That said, if you have paypal, email me @ saeble at gmail dot com and we can have a chat ;)
I was thinking of spacecraft and what color they are when I recalled they are wight. I went and checked out Wikipedia. The Enterprise from the same named show was gray, the rest were wight. Soyuz is black, gray, wight, red with gold soler panels. The Hubble looks gold silver-gray and black. Don't let the silver-gray monster eat your brain.
Comments
Well the Vorlons did a lot of stuff so its hard to not point the finger at them and say "they did it!!" :D
While he may be atheist, his is definitely not afraid to tackle religous questions.
Jake
1) I agree with all the people who found the first episode to be out of place in B5. This could have been "Twilight Zone" all the same and I think some B5 alternatives like Telepathy or First Ones should have been discussed at least.
2) I agree with all the people who think the Quantumspace felt wrong. As was already mentioned here, it isn't consistent with the rest of the show and it seemed to me that it was only used to initiate the following very cheap joke.
Now to the SFX. The CGI quality was great and the new Minbari and Centauri ships fit B5 style much better compared to those of Crusade or Legend. I disliked the new jumphole graphics though, because as with Legend the original ones would have been fine for me. Now for two other SFX details:
1) I didn't like the Warlock firing yellow as in the original series there was an almost perfect connection between races and their powerbeam colors. EA should either still fire red or blue like the modified Shadow cruisers, not yellow like Centauri should do. This is especially critical...
2) ... as yellow beams appear in the earlier big CGI sequence. For that scene mass drivers would have been much better but I suspect this would have killed the budget big time. After all with those beams we don't actually see any destruction which we certainly would do otherwise.
And good point about the mass drivers, that would have been really cool.
Regarding the beam or particle weapons, I only partly agree with Biggles. Firing through an atmosphere would erode or slow down small particles much faster that large particles so the Centauri used the mass drivers on Narn on purpose. Also while I agree that the colour is connected to the technical level I would assume that the EA wouldn't get much higher in that timespan than with the stolen shadow tech. Yellow just adds to the confusion especially as it is the dominate Centauri colour and people not recognizing the new ships could get confused who is who in that battle. In case that matters to them anyway ;).
Worf
[/QUOTE]
In that case one small asteroid would have been enough and I still suspect this was a CGI issue. Maybe Alec can shed some light on it and the EA particle beam colors?
It is considered illegal when Londo watched his government do it. I would think it would be illegal in the time when Ventari did it.
It is considered illegal when Londo watched his government do it. I would think it would be illegal in the time when Ventari did it.[/QUOTE]
It didn't stop the Centauri back then and I don't think it would stop the Centauri when they dare to attack a world of the ISA.
Considering the VFX, I can just say: Great job. Pat yourselves on the back, I especially enjoyed the closeups of the starfury exhausts, and the heat shimmers behind Galen and Sheridan when they talk out in the docking room.
Great attention to detail.
Also, I really liked that you used several AOG ships in the ep., giving them a nod. You took some of the best looking ones too, the Balvarin Carrier especially. :)
that, is so cool...
and its got the crucial little change someone suggested, the toes hanging down to strengthen the impression that he's hanging from that rocket pack
I sure hope that other similar ones get used...
*COUGH*
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/26077195@N00/sets/72157600216464565/[/url]
Those are all my work and I'd have absolutely no problem with them being used, gratis, nor I think would the intended recipients would mind either. Also, I'd do more on spec, for nuthin' if they we're needed...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*If WB wants to sue my ass for doing a screen cap, so be it. This is all my own doing. Send the goonz to my door. I just gotta share. :)
I caught a bit of that thread in question, but as I wasnt around back then I dont think its right of me to enquire further.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_ships[/url]